Ever wonder where all the words and definitions came from? My nine year old is in the "why do they call it ________?" phase. He´s neverending in his quest to know why in world we call them flags, guns, cars ....

I have to be honest. He gets it from me. I just wonder why we call it emotion, psychology, stress, ....

Maybe it was someone’s thoughtless comment that you’re selfish or did something wrong.

You know you weren’t being selfish. You didn’t do anything wrong. You really have nothing to feel guilty about but, regardless, your mind feeds on it, you fear that you might be guilty, and you can’t let it go. It’s there at the back of your mind, waiting for confirmation that, yes, you should feel guilty.

The one who made the thoughtless comment simply got their feelings hurt. But then, they sense the guilt in you. Consciously or not, they use it to their advantage; manipulating you, pushing the feeling on you, making it’s weight heavier. You’re sure it’s all coming from them. You really start to doubt yourself. Maybe they’re right. Maybe you are guilty. Maybe you were selfish. Maybe you should make amends.

But then again, maybe you aren’t and weren’t and shouldn’t…. Maybe the guilt is coming only from you.

Learn to recognize false guilt, stop it, explain your emotions or actions to yourself, and accept your explanation as well as your responsibility.

Guilt is something like sin. We have been programmed to believe we’re prone to these faults; hence, we expect them in ourselves. Too often we don’t question their legitimacy. And, then, the buildup of false accusations, understandably, turns to apprehension, bitterness and resentment, often without knowing from where the negative feelings are coming.

An interesting little tidbit I picked up from Eckhart Tolle in his book New Earth points out that original sin is recognized as the normal state of humanity according to Christianity. He takes that an interesting step further by sighting that “sin”, as written (in Greek) in the New Testament, literally translates as “to miss the mark”. So, in a nutshell, the original definition of sin is potentially and quite simply to miss the point of human existence. It does not necessarily mean you are a bad person. And certainly that wouldn’t translate to Webster’s definition: 1. the willful breaking of religious or moral law. 2. any offense or fault.

Even better, Tolle then gives us the definitions for the normal state of humanity according to Buddhism and Hinduism. Get this: suffering, unsatisfactoriness, or misery for the Buddhists; the veil of delusion for the Hinduists.

Hmm. They may have something there. This world is chock full of victims of unhappiness or unfairness on every corner. Certainly I can think of several individuals who I’d call self-deluded.

If you think about it, you can simplify all this guilt of being a bad person into simply being human and either not getting the point of life or just not knowing your path. So, how you rectify being an unsatisfied or deluded human (or sinner) is completely dependent upon how you interpret your guilty deeds.

Moral: When you feel guilty, just flip a U-ee and pull over at the corner called Contemplation.